Childhood friend
by Lala2597
Summary: A prequel to Forget-me-not, how Jasline really first met Sirius  before Hogwarts , although she was unaware of it...
1. Chapter 1

Eight year old Sirius hated the house. He hated all the generations of house elves' heads hanging on the walls, the dark and oppressive exterior, the sycophantic elf Kreacher, the torturous lessons his mother would make him go through every day ever since he turned four. He wanted out. But his unreasonable mother has kept him in yet again, forbidding him from going anywhere near those "filthy muggles". But were they so different from him? Every time he asked, his crazy mother would simply scold and beat him into submission, screaming that he was an unruly and petulant child for even daring to question her. But her extreme behavior only fuelled Sirius's desire to interact with a muggle, just to prove his mother wrong. Sirius decided he was willing to risk getting spanked if he was caught sneaking outside, quite worth the trouble of being able to spend some hours of freedom alone. He would just have to wait until his mother takes an afternoon nap with Regulus and make a run for it.

After waiting impatiently for the whole morning, Sirius finally saw his mother disappear into the bedroom, where she would remain for another 2 hours. Elated, Sirius quickly slipped out from his bedroom window and down a tree. He then swiftly made his way past the magical barrier at the perimeter of the house, towards the muggles' side. Noise and light that was previously shut out by the barrier immediately hit his senses, and Sirius was momentarily stunned by the bright lights, childrens' laughter and the roar of vehicles as they passed. Blinking rapidly, Sirius began an aimless walk down the road, fascinated by children playing in the lawns of neighbouring houses and adults walking by with a strange device plastered to their ears as they spoke into said devices. Unable to understand what was going around him, young Sirius decided to continue this routine and observe the muggles for the next few days. He did not dare approach a muggle lest what his mother had drilled into him turned out to be true. That the muggles were lesser beings than them, that he would get hurt if they found out he was a wizard, just because they were jealous of his magic.

It was with this same routine that many days passed, and Sirius even got himself a disguise in case the muggles found out his real identity, childishly thinking that his pureblood looks would sooner or later give him away. Dressed as a total opposite of who he was, Sirius wore a wig that his mother owned, one of the many in her wardrobe so she couldn't possibly miss one. He would also don a "skirt" fashioned from his shorts. He wasn't particularly good at sewing, but with some practice he was able to make the "skirt" look more realistic. With a naturally fair complexion, Sirius passed off as quite a normal looking girl. It was with such a perfect disguise that Sirius dared to say hi to the kids from outside the gate, and made a few friends that way. Sometimes he would even play hide-and-seek with the kids.

However, one girl struck Sirius as rather peculiar. She had recently moved into the house across from his. She was quiet and shy, and didn't play with the other kids, preferring to sit in a chair outside to read a book instead. He had tried talking to her, but she only quickly closed the book and ran back into the house. She had beautiful forest green eyes and long, flowing blond hair. Sirius was mesmerized by her beauty. After a week, the girl was still trying to hide from him, but Sirius wouldn't give up so easily. He was determined to make friends with the girl, no matter what.

Jasline Simpson had just moved into 22 Grimmauld Place, because it was closer to her father's work place. She was depressed from having to leave her old friends from school, so she mostly kept to herself. She would rather spend the time immersed in her storybooks, travelling like Alice from "Alice in Wonderland", to a world different from her own, just so she could escape the loneliness in her real life. Yet, there was always a strange girl who would pass by her house sometimes and try to talk to her, which was awkward for Jasline as she didn't know her and had never met her before. She was quite sure that the girl wasn't even from her school, the only elementary school in the neighbourhood. Plus, she was always warned by her parents against talking to strangers, and the girl's tattered skirt probably meant she came from a poor family. Jasline's family was quite well-off, and she was afraid the girl might be attempting to steal from her. So she sought refuge in her house whenever she saw her coming from a distance. Eventually, after two weeks of friendly waving at the gate, Jasline decided that she was being rather rude to the girl. She would muster the courage to speak to her should she come by again, perhaps just talk to her so that she would go away and not disturb her again.

As expected, the same little girl ran up to her gate again and waved at her just as she was about to settle down with a book. Jasline approached her warily, and was surprised to see that the girl was actually quite cute up close, with brown hair and grey eyes. "Hello, do you want to play?" the girl asked her with a smile on her face. She was wearing a plain white shirt with the same tattered looking skirt that she wore every day. Jasline wondered if she came from a family so poor that she was unable to attend school. Seeing that Jasline had no response, the girl looked crestfallen and made to leave. "Wait!" Jasline said, her heart going out to the poor girl that looked lost and lonely. She and her mother would just have to keep an eye on the girl and make sure she doesn't steal anything. It wouldn't hurt to make a new friend, right? "I could play with you. I will just get the key to unlock the gate for you. What's your name?" And that was how Jasline met Sarah, her brave, formidable and unforgettable childhood friend of two years, before she mysteriously disappeared without a trace.


	2. Chapter 2

Sirius was stunned when the beautiful girl asked him for his name, so he quickly blurted out "Si-Sarah, Sarah Black-wood", catching himself just in time, angry that he had been so careless. At this rate, he should be more afraid of being carted off by evil muggles than getting spanked by his mother. The girl, whom he now knew was Jasline, brought him into her fairly large house and stood uncertainly at the door to her room. "What would you like to play?" Taking a peek inside, Sirius was surprised by the volumes of books that the girl owned. What was she, a bookworm? Wondering if he had made the wrong choice of making friends with her, he asked to read together, consoling himself that at least Jasline hadn't asked him to play with dolls or do some other girly activity. So they spent the first day reading many storybooks, and Sirius found that he quite enjoyed himself reading "fairy tales" and some other amazing mystery novels. It was a welcome change from all the boring history books of his ancestry or mind boggling spell books that lay at home. He sensed that Jasline had the wrong impression that he was from a poor family (must be the skirt, he was slightly annoyed that Jasline would look down at his sewing skills) and thus hadn't gone to school, but he was happy not to correct that misconception. After all, he would then have the ready excuse to run off, saying that he needed to help his mother back home. He quickly declined Jasline's offer to walk him home, feigning embarrassment and saying his house was very small, so he didn't want Jasline to see it yet. (Actually, his house was probably twice her house's size, but she wouldn't be able to see it anyway, since it was hidden by the barrier)

One year had passed peacefully by, but Regulus was turning five and starting to sleep less. Sometimes Sirius would arrive just in time, climbing the tree to get through his bedroom window, before his mother hollered at him to start his lessons. He would most certainly be caught if he continued his routine. He and Jasline had become good friends, sometimes inevitably playing with stuffed animals, but most of the time thankfully either reading books or listening to Jasline as she taught him stuff that she learnt in muggle school. Mathematics, Science, the languages, she was so much more interesting than his mother. The latter would just dump all the grammar, verbs, spells and etiquette books at him and expect him to learn everything by the end of the day, giving him a test that he would fail most of the time the next day, getting a spanking in return. The caning was so frequent that his mother became too tired to spank him by the time he turned five, just repeatedly expressing her disappointment at his "lack of effort" or "ability to understand" or something else. It was hurtful that his mother kept saying such things, to the point that Sirius accepted that he was perhaps a little stupid after all. But Jasline never said such horrible things, in fact, she was always encouraging and complimented Sirius whenever he got a Maths question right. It cheered Sirius that at least there was someone who did not criticize him all the time, and he cherished Jasline even more.

He did not know how he could meet Jasline now, with his afternoon play time getting shorter and shorter, that even Jasline began to notice. Perhaps he could somehow meet her at night; no one could possibly catch him then. His father worked late nights and never bothered to check up on him, while his mother would turn in early every night. Regulus would fall asleep listening to Sirius retell one of the stories he had read in the afternoon, so that was no problem either. With that in mind, he set out a plan to see Jasline at night, hoping fervently that she would agree with the plan.

Jasline noticed that her friend always grew quite restless after 1 hour of play time, and would often give excuses about rushing home to help her mother prepare things to sell at a market far away. She supposed Sarah would be given more responsibilities as the days passed, and volunteered to help, but she was always vehemently rejected by Sarah. Up till now, Sarah had never once invited her over to her house. Sarah must have had her reasons, so Jasline didn't pry further, although she always wondered how Sarah could have walked to her house every day if she didn't live nearby. By now, Jasline already knew all the neighbours along the street, and not one of them could tell her where Sarah lived. Maybe one day her impoverished friend might trust her enough to confide in her, but for now, she would just enjoy the short time she had with her enigmatic friend.

Then one day, Sarah popped by with a grand plan. She explained to Jasline that her mother was becoming stricter and needed her to work during the day time, so she could only come out and play at night. Jasline's role was simply to unlock the gate for her at around 10pm every night so that she could come and play. Jasline's mother, Gladys, was already used to Sarah, so she didn't object to the arrangement, and it wasn't hard convincing Jasline's father as well. After all they were all too aware that Sarah was the key to breaking their daughter's reticence, her very first friend since moving here. No one could have anticipated the horrible events that would soon follow.


End file.
